When you're frying at home, how do you know when your oil is hot enough and ready to go? If you can't measure the temperature exactly, you can just use a grain of rice.

New Orleans chef Poppy Tooker, on food how-to site How2Heroes, demonstrates that you just have to drop a grain of rice into your oil to see if it's ready for frying. If the rice pops right back up and starts to cook, you're at the right temperature (which is 360 degrees, by the way). Pretty simple!

For more ways to check if your oil is ready and see a video demonstration (we weren't able to embed, sorry!), check it out on How2Heroes.